Rafiq Qori Kamoluddin, the prominent ethnic Uzbek religious leader who was killed during a security raid in southern Kyrgyzstan on August 6, is not the first imam to have been targeted by law-enforcement agencies in the region. Several other Uzbek imams have been persecuted before. But he is the first …

August 17, 2006 — The Moscow city court has sentenced the former head of security at the bankrupt oil firm Yukos to 24 years in prison for a series of contract killings. Aleksei Pichugin is already serving a 20-year sentence on charges of organizing several murders,

 Rome/Brussels: The European Commission said yesterday it was closely following Russian gas monopoly Gazprom’s cooperation deal with Algeria’s Sonatrach after Italy said it could lead to higher gas prices in Europe.